Water: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth

I was in the Chamber earlier and one speaker after another got up and slammed corporate communications from Uisce Éireann. That is fair to say. Any of us, who, at this point, have decent enough communications, it is usually on the ground and it relates to engineers and those who work for Uisce Éireann and would have previously worked for the council and some who still do. This is not good enough when you want to get information on the major operations. If somebody landed from Mars, the one thing they would understand is that we have clean water and wastewater infrastructure that is not fit for purpose and is posing huge issues in relation to the delivery of housing, but also to industry. I get it. This is not the starting point you would want, but we are where we are.
Dundalk, similar to an awful lot of places, has had an issue with water discolouration that is caused by increased amounts of manganese that was reacting with chlorine and causing rotten, brown gunk water. Obviously, no matter how many times Uisce Éireann or anybody else said it was drinkable and safe, people refused to believe that. Many will talk about the damage that has been done, whether it is to clothes, utensils, washing machines, dishwashers, etc. The only good news in the last period is that there has been some element of success, in the sense of a system that works, with a number of the operations that were being tested and filter systems in Cavan Hill, which deals with the majority of Dundalk. The press release spoke about great strides to be taken in 2026, but I do not see a completion date. I have been in here many times before and spoken about the issue over years.
At times, I have had decent contact with Irish Water, but then the person changes and you do not get it and no elected representative can get the sort of representation or connection that they want. That is something I would like the Government to bring up with Irish Water, another agency or scenario set up to be at an arm's length from the Government. For wastewater, clean water and treatment plants, we are talking about 2029 or 2033. None of this is good enough. We need real action.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21